Okay lets look at what he HAS done, re-signed Zac Rinaldo to an extension (which fortunately there was a dumber GM out there to correct that for him), sign Dale Weise for 4 years, and made Voracek the $66 million dollar man. So far he has been bad when doing "something" so I guess we should be thankful that he keeps this team in the mushy middle. BLow this garbage up and rebuild properly. The one thing he is great at is acquiring young assets. Imagine if he put himself in better position to do so. Instead his team is too bad to win and too good to get better.
- redcoat75

Ghost (last season), Provorov, and Konecny... Ok let's just call it all gloom and doom.

Okay lets look at what he HAS done, re-signed Zac Rinaldo to an extension (which fortunately there was a dumber GM out there to correct that for him), sign Dale Weise for 4 years, and made Voracek the $66 million dollar man. So far he has been bad when doing "something" so I guess we should be thankful that he keeps this team in the mushy middle. BLow this garbage up and rebuild properly. The one thing he is great at is acquiring young assets. Imagine if he put himself in better position to do so. Instead his team is too bad to win and too good to get better.
- redcoat75

I have no problem with voracek this year. Ever see those baby carriers that suck the kid up against moms belly? That's giroux this year on his line. It is ridiculous with giroux

Pretty sure Hextall flunked Snidernomics class. On day 1 everyone practices this...



- Just5

Thy GIF is hilarious... And yes Holmgren was awful.

He has so little to work with, I almost feel bad for Hak

Looking objectively:
Vandevelde is a borderline 4th liner
PEB, Lyubimov are average 4th line players.
Raffl and Weise might be signed to 3rd line contracts, but they are playing like 4th liners.
Cousins hustles and draws penalties, but he is a 3rd line player at best.
Read is barely a 3rd liner at this point.

That leaves all of 5 forwards
Simmonds is great on the pp and brings toughness which this team sorely lacks, but at ES, he is a 2nd line guy at best
Schenn is great on the pp, but just flat out bad at ES, he really should be on the 3rd line.
Couturier is an ok 2nd line center who is never going to be a big scorer

and now we are down to 2:
Giroux is a mess right now, hell he's even somewhat struggling on the pp. The way he is playing right now, he has no business playing in the top 6 at ES

Jake is pretty much it for a legit threat at ES, if you shut him down, they aren't going score except on the pp.

Now add that to a D where your top guy just turned 20 and goalies who have been woefully inconsistent and I'm not sure what Hak can really do.

I don't like some of Hak's line combos and certainly often disagree with his lineups, but at the end of the day, I really can't judge him as a head coach. He just doesn't have enough talent to work with.
- BiggE

You are spot on. You have to be willing to give Hakstol another year at least. There is such a void of talent it's not even funny. It really is amazing if you think about it that they are still on the periphery of the playoffs. The goaltending has been atrocious, the defense is a Chinese fire drill, and there is absolutely zero secondary scoring. How is this team not a bottom 3 or 4 team? Answer, the 10 game winning streak.

Okay lets look at what he HAS done, re-signed Zac Rinaldo to an extension (which fortunately there was a dumber GM out there to correct that for him), sign Dale Weise for 4 years, and made Voracek the $66 million dollar man. So far he has been bad when doing "something" so I guess we should be thankful that he keeps this team in the mushy middle. BLow this garbage up and rebuild properly. The one thing he is great at is acquiring young assets. Imagine if he put himself in better position to do so. Instead his team is too bad to win and too good to get better.
- redcoat75

Yup, only look at the bad, makes perfect sense.

He unloaded Rinaldo for a 3rd, that's a (frank)ing steal.
He got rid of Vinny and Pronger's contract
He had the nads to bury AMac in the minors when he needed to do so
He's drafted some fantastic prospects
He got MDZ for cheap when they badly needed a Dman and was able to re-sign him to a reasonable extension.
He re-signed Couturier to a reasonable extension

It's hard to make good deals when you aren't dealing from strength. Could he move G? Sure, but this probably wouldn't be the optimal time to do so. Simmonds could be moved at a certain point in time, but I don't think now is the time. To go all out and tank for a chance to get a shot at 2 prospects, who while both are very good, neither is a McDavid or Matthews would not be wise. He'll likely move some expiring deals at the deadline like he did with Timonen and Coburn and that's fine with me.

Building patiently from within is not a linear process, there will be ups and downs. I'm willing to wait.

He has so little to work with, I almost feel bad for Hak

Looking objectively:
Vandevelde is a borderline 4th liner
PEB, Lyubimov are average 4th line players.
Raffl and Weise might be signed to 3rd line contracts, but they are playing like 4th liners.
Cousins hustles and draws penalties, but he is a 3rd line player at best.
Read is barely a 3rd liner at this point.

That leaves all of 5 forwards
Simmonds is great on the pp and brings toughness which this team sorely lacks, but at ES, he is a 2nd line guy at best
Schenn is great on the pp, but just flat out bad at ES, he really should be on the 3rd line.
Couturier is an ok 2nd line center who is never going to be a big scorer

and now we are down to 2:
Giroux is a mess right now, hell he's even somewhat struggling on the pp. The way he is playing right now, he has no business playing in the top 6 at ES

Jake is pretty much it for a legit threat at ES, if you shut him down, they aren't going score except on the pp.

Now add that to a D where your top guy just turned 20 and goalies who have been woefully inconsistent and I'm not sure what Hak can really do.

I don't like some of Hak's line combos and certainly often disagree with his lineups, but at the end of the day, I really can't judge him as a head coach. He just doesn't have enough talent to work with.
- BiggE

Great post with an excellent close.

You are spot on. You have to be willing to give Hakstol another year at least. There is such a void of talent it's not even funny. It really is amazing if you think about it that they are still on the periphery of the playoffs. The goaltending has been atrocious, the defense is a Chinese fire drill, and there is absolutely zero secondary scoring. How is this team not a bottom 3 or 4 team? Answer, the 10 game winning streak.
- PLindbergh31

Pretty much, that streak, the pp, Jake and Provorov have been carrying this team.

BiggE coming strong this AM. Must have been a good scotch night last night.

Yup, only look at the bad, makes perfect sense.

He unloaded Rinaldo for a 3rd, that's a (frank)ing steal.
He got rid of Vinny and Pronger's contract
He had the nads to bury AMac in the minors when he needed to do so
He's drafted some fantastic prospects
He got MDZ for cheap when they badly needed a Dman and was able to re-sign him to a reasonable extension.
He re-signed Couturier to a reasonable extension

It's hard to make good deals when you aren't dealing from strength. Could he move G? Sure, but this probably wouldn't be the optimal time to do so. Simmonds could be moved at a certain point in time, but I don't think now is the time. To go all out and tank for a chance to get a shot at 2 prospects, who while both are very good, neither is a McDavid or Matthews would not be wise. He'll likely move some expiring deals at the deadline like he did with Timonen and Coburn and that's fine with me.

Building patiently from within is not a linear process, there will be ups and downs. I'm willing to wait.
- BiggE

And while the Weise signing right now doesn't look great....he could still turn it around and the contract isn't something that will cripple the team. He's not throwing bad money at FA that don't fit this teams window.

Pretty much, that streak, the pp, Jake and Provorov have been carrying this team.
- BiggE

Not that jJake is playign bad but I thought earlier in the year he was dominant. Almost looks like his timing is off or something.

Not that jJake is playign bad but I thought earlier in the year he was dominant. Almost looks like his timing is off or something.
- ClaudeFather

He looks better right now with Couturier.

I think it helps that he can carry the puck a little more.

"He unloaded Rinaldo for a 3rd, that's a (frank)ing steal.
He got rid of Vinny and Pronger's contract
He had the nads to bury AMac in the minors when he needed to do so
He's drafted some fantastic prospects
He got MDZ for cheap when they badly needed a Dman and was able to re-sign him to a reasonable extension.
He re-signed Couturier to a reasonable extension

It's hard to make good deals when you aren't dealing from strength. Could he move G? Sure, but this probably wouldn't be the optimal time to do so. Simmonds could be moved at a certain point in time, but I don't think now is the time. To go all out and tank for a chance to get a shot at 2 prospects, who while both are very good, neither is a McDavid or Matthews would not be wise. He'll likely move some expiring deals at the deadline like he did with Timonen and Coburn and that's fine with me."

Building patiently from within is not a linear process, there will be ups and downs. I'm willing to wait.

Understood. But you can't roll out the same core every year and expect different results. There is a balance to changing a squad. Holmgren was too much for constant change; Which is bad. Hextall is all about changing nothing and waiting for the excruciating glacial paced rebuild through the draft. Well it's even slower when you are constantly drafting in the teens to twenties. We got Provy when we were really bad. And won't get Another like him until we get really bad again.

He has so little to work with, I almost feel bad for Hak

Looking objectively:
Vandevelde is a borderline 4th liner
PEB, Lyubimov are average 4th line players.
Raffl and Weise might be signed to 3rd line contracts, but they are playing like 4th liners.
Cousins hustles and draws penalties, but he is a 3rd line player at best.
Read is barely a 3rd liner at this point.

That leaves all of 5 forwards
Simmonds is great on the pp and brings toughness which this team sorely lacks, but at ES, he is a 2nd line guy at best
Schenn is great on the pp, but just flat out bad at ES, he really should be on the 3rd line.
Couturier is an ok 2nd line center who is never going to be a big scorer

and now we are down to 2:
Giroux is a mess right now, hell he's even somewhat struggling on the pp. The way he is playing right now, he has no business playing in the top 6 at ES

Jake is pretty much it for a legit threat at ES, if you shut him down, they aren't going score except on the pp.

Now add that to a D where your top guy just turned 20 and goalies who have been woefully inconsistent and I'm not sure what Hak can really do.

I don't like some of Hak's line combos and certainly often disagree with his lineups, but at the end of the day, I really can't judge him as a head coach. He just doesn't have enough talent to work with.
- BiggE

Spot on. Hextall has his work cut out for him.

He looks better right now with Couturier.

I think it helps that he can carry the puck a little more.
- J35Bacher

Yea two big bodies down low helps as well. I'd like to see Weise assert himself on that line with TK out. Hit a guy score a goal tonight.

They're all past their primes now
- YuenglingJagr

Jeff Carter says hello

BiggE coming strong this AM. Must have been a good scotch night last night.
- dragonoffrost

Not that jJake is playign bad but I thought earlier in the year he was dominant. Almost looks like his timing is off or something.
- ClaudeFather

Teams have been keying on him all year because, at ES, they have no one else to worry about, even more so since TK went down. It's probably starting to wear him down.

Understood. But you can't roll out the same core every year and expect different results. There is a balance to changing a squad. Holmgren was too much for constant change; Which is bad. Hextall is all about changing nothing and waiting for the excruciating glacial paced rebuild through the draft. Well it's even slower when you are constantly drafting in the teens to twenties. We got Provy when we were really bad. And won't get Another like him until we get really bad again.
- redcoat75

Maybe, maybe not. There is a good chance they could pick in the top 10 again this year so we'll see. Simone Gagne, Jeff Carter and Claude Giroux weren't top 10 picks and neither were current highly regarded prospects like Sanheim, Myers and Lindblom. You can develop a good team without blatantly tanking like Pittsburgh in the past or Buffalo more recently.

Understood. But you can't roll out the same core every year and expect different results. There is a balance to changing a squad. Holmgren was too much for constant change; Which is bad. Hextall is all about changing nothing and waiting for the excruciating glacial paced rebuild through the draft. Well it's even slower when you are constantly drafting in the teens to twenties. We got Provy when we were really bad. And won't get Another like him until we get really bad again.
- redcoat75

In all honesty what moves were out there to make?

He was able to move the Lecavalier contract. He got out from the Pronger deal. Their really weren't any free agents, top end types, that he should have went after.

He's being patient until it's time not to be patient.

Jeff Carter says hello
- JFlyers00

over your head, it would seem

Maybe, maybe not. There is a good chance they could pick in the top 10 again this year so we'll see. Simone Gagne, Jeff Carter and Claude Giroux weren't top 10 picks and neither were current highly regarded prospects like Sanheim, Myers and Lindblom. You can develop a good team without blatantly tanking like Pittsburgh in the past or Buffalo more recently.
- BiggE

If Edmonton didn't luck into the McDavid pick, how many high picks have they had that had not done anything.

over your head, it would seem
- YuenglingJagr

Nah

Just a playful jab considering Carter was so hated on here by some.

Nah

Just a playful jab considering Carter was so hated on here by some.
- JFlyers00

that was before my time...but knowing what I know now, I fully understand

If Edmonton didn't luck into the McDavid pick, how many high picks have they had that had not done anything.
- J35Bacher

Yup, as much as I love Draisatl, he alone isn't carrying that team.

If G is in the decline and Duschene is 2-3 years younger does a deal here not make sense. Sure the Avs may not be interested, but can't you sweeten the deal with picks and/or a prospect or two?
I really like Duschene, Landeskog AND Tyson Barrie....Heck the Avs even have a little log-jam in net. (Varly??)
Can anyone foresee a shocking blockbuster G,Schenn + for duschene and Landeskog?
Would anyone pull the trigger on that deal?